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SINGAPORE - Most bus and train journeys except those for children, students and national servicemen, will see fare changes from 1 October 2008.
The Public Transport Council (PTC) has given the green light for an overall net fare adjustment that will result in fare changes that will range from a 7-cent reduction to a 4-cent increase per journey.
Adult EZ-Link fares on buses and trains and the senior citizen concession EZ-Link fare, will see a flat increase of 4 cents per ride.
However, this will be offset by the 15-cent increase in transfer rebate from the current 25 cents to 40 cents.
Public transport operators have also decided that they will bear 10 cents out of the 15-cent increase in the transfer rebate.
Therefore, fares for most adult or senior citizen concession journeys will see a range of adjustments, from an increase of 4 cents for a direct journey with no transfer, to a reduction of 7 cents for a journey with one transfer.
According to the PTC, journeys with more transfers will see a greater fare reduction, ranging from 18 cents for a journey with two transfers and 29 cents if there are two transfers.
To fund the higher transfer rebate, transport operators will give up more than $30 million in fare revenues annually. As for the remaining 5-cent increase in the transfer rebate, the PTC said it will be redistributed amongst commuters, as they will benefit from it.
Chairman of the PTC, Gerard Ee said "by raising the transfer rebate this year and making the operators absorb a larger part of the cost, we managed to strike a balance and keep the overall net fare adjustment to just 0.7%, much lower than the fare cap of 3%."
“This decision comes after careful deliberation, testing many permutations and scrutinising the impact on both operators and commuters."
In a news release, the PTC also announced a new maximum EZ-Link fare-band, with an additional 5-cent increase for long-distance rides on buses and trains.
As for cash fares for adult bus and train rides, which have not been adjusted since 2005, they will increase by 10 cents across the board.
The PTC said that it considered during its deliberations, Singapore’s economic outlook, the affordability of public transport and the fare review mechanism adopted since 2005.
It noted that the public transport affordability indicator had been on a down-trend over the past five years, indicating that fares have remained affordable for most commuters.
To further safeguard commuters’ interests, the PTC said it checked on the ROTA (Return-On-Total-Assets) of transport operators and was satisfied that their profit levels were not excessive compared to other industries with similar risk profiles.
The PTC believes that the changes to distance-based fares with transfer rebates will impact 64 percent of commuters based on the current pattern of public transport journeys made using EZ-Link cards.
Most public transport users should see an adjustment in their weekly public transport expenditure that could range from an average increase of 18 cents per week, or about $10 a year; to even a reduction in expenditure.
As for the rest of commuters who typically make direct journeys, they should see an average increase of 23 cents a week, or $12 a year.
- CNA/sf
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